Features

What’s in store?

The Museums Association's Effective Collections programme is coming to an end after five years. But are objects any better used as a result, asks Geraldine Kendall

Dissenting voices

As issues such as executive pay, government cuts and NHS reform continue to divide people in Britain, Rob Sharp looks how museums are reflecting protest across the UK

Best in show

Jonathan Leaman: A Jan Steen Kitchen (1995-6), Millennium Gallery, Sheffield

Royal subjects

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee has inspired a flood of exhibitions but do any of them reflect the views of those who don't support royalty? Geraldine Kendall investigates

Returning home

Carol Christophersen and Emma Loban are bringing new insights into the repatriation of human remains at the Natural History Museum. Simon Stephens meets them

The Museum of…Our pick of the UK’s specialist collections

It is a truth universally acknowledged that fans of the author will find plenty to swoon over at Jane Austen's House Museum, writes John Holt

The Museum of…Our pick of the UK’s specialist collections

Geraldine Kendall hears about a museum that tells the story of naval conflict in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands

Welcome all

With high-profile events such as the Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Dickens bicentenary, this is going to be a big year for attracting overseas visitors to the UK, writes Geraldine Kendall

Best in Show

Tent of Sahib Tipu, Sultan of Mysore, circa 1725-50, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Save our ships

Despite some notable success stories, many projects to preserve historic vessels are struggling to keep their heads above water. Deborah Mulhearn finds out why

Great expectations

Many museums are hoping to banish hard times by attracting visitors to events celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth. By Deborah Mulhearn

The art of science

Ian Blatchford hopes his experience at the V&A will help him to transform the National Museum of Science and Industry. Simon Stephens meets him